Webster ankles Shine, Kudos

Exec to be replaced by Warner's Oliver Madden

Paul Webster has ankled as head of film at Kudos Pictures and Shine Pictures, owned by Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group, and will return to independent producing.

Webster, who joined Kudos in 2004 and whose credits include “Atonement” and “Eastern Promises,” will leave at the end of April, but will continue to work with Shine as a producer.

Warner Bros. U.K.’s VP of production Oliver Madden will become head of film at the reconfigured Shine Pictures in May, reporting to Kudos Film and TV exec chairman Stephen Garrett.

Madden will work with Garrett building Shine’s slate, which includes “The Gray Man,” an adaptation of Mark Greaney’s tome, helmed by James Gray, “Eastern Promises 2″ and “3 Seconds,” an adaptation of Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom’s Swedish crime tome, with scribe Matt Cook attached.Last month News Corp. reached an agreement in principle to purchase Murdoch’s Shine Group in a pact that values it at $674 million.Webster said he looked forward to working with Shine as an indie producer while Garrett added he was “respectful of Paul’s decision to return to his first love of producing.”

Webster is currently in post on Lasse Hallstrom’s “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” backed by BBC Films and toplining Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor.